Despite the much advertised ability of Obama to secure a crossover Republican vote, in at least one common New Hampshire primary crossover metric he did not do significantly better than Hillary Clinton.
The New Hampshire Secretary of State's office has released the tabulation of write-in votes on Republican ballots. Since registered Republicans were not allowed to pull a Democratic ballot for the primary, many wishing to vote for a Democratic candidate were only able to do so by writing in that candidate's name -- with some interesting results.
The results of the write-in tabulation for the Democratic candidates on Republican ballots are as follows:
Obama: 1,800
Clinton: 1,743
Edwards: 696
Ruchardson: 191
Kucinich: 13
The Republican primary is a separate contest, and the write-ins have no effect on the Democratic nomination. However, they may serve as an indicator of what disenfranchised Republicans may find appealing in a candidate. The near tie is surprising in light of charges that Hillary has less crossover appeal than Obama.
The total number of Republicans writing in Democratic candidates this time around was also considered extraordinary: at 4,443 it represents a significant chunk of the vote of this swing state. To give a sense of scale, in 2004, Kerry beat Bush here by a little over 9,000 votes.
Approximately 2,200 Democrats wrote in Republican candidates, with clear favorite being John McCain.
More tallies and discussion are available at Blue Hampshire.